[Taristin]

Well, I've been looking at laptops a but lately, since I'll be going away (hopefully) to school in the Fall, and don't want to lug my home PC around up there.

What I've been looking for was an AMD powered notebook, good memory, and a decent vid card.

I think I found what I want, but unfortunately, it's a Gateway.
I've heard very bad things about Gateway's desktops, with parts not being completely interchangeable, if they're not from Gateway, etc...
But since this is a laptop, is that really important?

Laptop in question:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1099386075236&skuId=6969097&type=product&cmp=++

It's a decent price, too.... which makes it all the more tempting...

Although, for the little bit more, Would this be better, from Newegg?
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=34-224-014&depa=0

[kasperl]

First off, you're looking for a desktop replacement, right?

These things won't live very long on the battery when you've got that kind of chip and vid card.

[Fury]

Laptops aren't good desktop replacements. What you should look for in laptops is very good mobility, long battery life and cool temperatures. High-end notebook CPU's and video cards do not offer that. And high performance notebooks are bad desktop replacements.

I suggest you look for a laptop with similar specs as this one has:
http://www.fujitsu-siemens.com/Resources/246/222341719.pdf

If you want a gaming machine, either buy a console or a desktop system.

[Taristin]

Not necessarily a desktop replacement. I really don't need all the power of a desktop, but I don't want an Intel CPU. I despise Intel. And I don't want something that has a P.O.S. vid card, either, really.

I just wanted something decent, and AMD powered. And battery life is only an issue when I'll be far away from an outlet, otherwise, I'll keep it plugged in most of the time.

[Clave]

Buy a Powerbook

[Hippo]

Hm... sounds like my laptop, only watered down...

Spoiler:

3.2ghz (p4ht though), 2gb ram, 60gb hard drive, 60gb removeable hard drive (swap bay) 104 key keyboard, and a radeon 9700 64mb (says agp, but i doubt it) attatched to a natively supported 1280x1024 17" screen

But then again, mine HAD to replace my desktop, since my parents gave it away...

[WMCoolmon]

If you're going to buy a laptop, either settle for a crap video card or prepare yourself for some heavy spending.

It is more cost-effective to find a cheap laptop vendor with some sturdy models, sink $300 into buying one that can do anything but games, and then spend the other $1200 on an ultra-super gaming rig. The latter could even be microATX for added portability, and you'd still come out with a system twice as good as what you'd end up if you spent it all on a laptop.

[Grey Wolf]

Hopefully their tech support has improved. Around 2000, they sent us a new keyboard because of graphical anomalies caused by the TNT2.

[WMCoolmon]

That...makes...no...sense.

[Taristin]

See? That's why I was afraid of the Gateway...

[Liberator]

My dad uses a gateway notebook.  I have no complaints about it.

The warraty is what you want to look at, also the 9700 is a far better video card, but will drink deeply of you're battery.

[Taristin]

Like I said, I can plug it in for use 90% of the time... I'm fairly certain of that...

[Fury]

Pentium M is probably the best notebook CPU at this moment, only AMD Sempron comes close. And if Intel Extreme Graphics 2 isn't good for you (which it is unless you play games), then consider buying a notebook which has either Radeon 9600 or lower or Radeon X600 or lower. Anything "bigger" is just useless for a notebook.

[Sesquipedalian]

Originally posted by Clave
Buy a Powerbook

 If you aren't playing games, a Mac is the way to go hands down.  You can get good deals on last year's model on eBay, and that'll handle any of the needs you could have at school, Raa.

[Taristin]

Hmm. I don't know anything about Macs...

[Clave]

*Clave's Mac Helpline is open*

[Taristin]

I'll.....  consider it... I've still got a bit of time before the next semester begins.

[Odyssey]

I'm not entirely sure where all the battery life issues people claim with the Radeon 9700 are coming from - maybe just because they're usually fitted to thirsty desktop-replacement laptops? I can say from my experience with my Acer Aspire 2010-series that a 9700 has very little impact on battery life if coupled with a frugal laptop ^_^

This thing has a 1.5 Ghz Pentium-M processor (I never used to like Intel much either, but they really hit on something good with the Pentium M), widescreen 15", 64mb Mobility Radeon 9700Pro - yet still lasts about 5 hours on battery when word-processing or something simple like that. And it's never had a problem with any games I run, framerates have always been high. I tried a test playing Unreal Tournament in a car once, the battery lasted 2 hours - this is with the processor at top speed, cooling fans running, screen at highest brightness, sound on high, everything I could do to try and kill the battery. Highly recommended machine, especially considering it doesn't have the expense of flagship models any more.

[Grey Wolf]

The Pentium M's are rather nice, especially as they ditched the entire Netburst architecture and went back to the P2/P3-era architecture.

[Hippo]

Never had a problem with Gateway, other than them shipping stuff by the most incredulitous routes... A replacement set of speakers webt from Bejjing to Tokeyo, to Ankhorage, to Miama, to Quebec, to LA, to NYC, to Boston, to Portland ME, and THEN localised itself to me... It only took 3 days though... But that was the most ****ed up tracking slip...


I defiantely see a battery hit from a 9700 though... Its not bad, since like Raa will be, i stay plugged in 95+% of the time, but when i'm not plugged in, i have about 75 minutes of high use, or about 90 minutes of idling...